Wyoming Cowboy Protection

She startled as the door swung open, the knife she’d been using clattering to the cutting board from nerveless fingers.

But it was only Noah who swept in, looking as he always did, like some mythical man from a Wild West time machine. Dirty old cowboy hat, scuffed and beaten-up cowboy boots. The jeans and heavy coat were modern enough, but Noah’s beard wasn’t like all the fashionable hipster ones she was used to. No, Noah’s beard was something of an old-fashioned shield.

She found herself pondering a little too deeply what he might be shielding himself from. Snapping herself out of that wonder, she picked up the knife. “You’re early,” she offered, trying to sound cheerful. “Dinner isn’t ready yet.”

It was another thing she’d surprisingly settled into with ease. They all three ate dinner together. Noah wasn’t exactly a talkative guy, but he listened. Sometimes he even entertained Seth while she cleaned up dinner.

He grunted, as he was so often wont to do, and slid his coat and hat off before hanging them on the pegs. She watched it all through her peripheral vision, forcing herself not to linger on the outline of his muscles in the thermal shirt he wore.

Yes, Noah had muscles, and they were not for her to ogle. Though she did on occasion. She was human, after all.

“Just need to call the vet,” he said.

“Is something wrong?”

“Horses aren’t right. Will there be enough for dinner if Ty comes over?”

“Of course.” Addie had gotten used to random Carsons showing up at the house at any time of day or night, or for any meal. She always made a little extra for dinner, as leftovers could easily be made into a lunch the next day.

Gotten used to. She smiled to herself as Noah grabbed the phone and punched in a number. It was almost unfathomable to have gotten used to a new life and think she might be able to stay in it.

Noah spoke in low tones to the vet and Addie worked on adding more lettuce to the salad so there would be enough for Ty. She watched out the window at the fading twilight. The days were getting shorter and colder. It was early fall yet, but the threat of snow seemed to be in the air.

She loved it here. She couldn’t deny it. The mountains in the distance, the ramshackle stables and barns. The animals she didn’t trust to approach but loved to watch. The way the sun gilded everything gold in the mornings and fiery red in the evenings. The air, so clear and different from anything she’d ever known before.

She felt at home here. More so than any point in her life. Maybe it was the circumstances, everything she was running from, how much she’d taken for granted before her sister had gotten mixed up with a mob boss. But she felt it, no matter how hard she tried to fight it.

She could easily see Seth growing up in this amazing place with Noah as something like a role model. Oh, it almost hurt to think of. It was a pipe dream. She couldn’t allow herself to believe Peter could never find them here. Could she?

Noah stopped talking and set the phone back in its cradle, looking far too grim. Addie’s stomach clenched. “Is everything okay?”

“Vet said it sounded like horses got into something chemical. Poison even,” Noah said gruffly with no preamble.

Any warmth or comfort or love of this place drained out of Addie in an instant. “Poison,” she repeated in a whisper.

Noah frowned at her, then softened that imperceptible amount she was beginning to recognize. “Carsons have some enemies in Bent. It isn’t unheard of.”

It was certainly possible. The Carsons were a rough-and-tumble bunch. Noah’s brother, Ty, could be gruff and abrasive when he was irritated. Grady was certainly charming, but he ran a bar and though she’d never spent any time there since the ranch and Seth took up most of her time, Laurel often spoke disparagingly of the clientele there.

Then there was Noah’s cousin Vanessa. Sharp, antagonistic Vanessa would likely have some enemies. Or Grady’s troublemaking stepbrother.

The problem was none of them lived at the ranch full-time. They came and went. Noah could be grumpy, but she truly couldn’t imagine him having enemies.

She, on the other hand, had a very real enemy.

“Are you sure?” she asked tentatively.

“Look, I know you’ve had some trouble in your past, but who would poison my horses to get at you?”

He had a point. A good point, even if he didn’t know the whole story. Peter would want her and Seth, not Noah or his horses. He’d never do something so small and piddly that wouldn’t hurt her directly.

“Trust me,” Noah said, dialing a new number into the phone. “This doesn’t have a thing to do with you, and the vet said if he gets over here soon and Ty helps out, we’ll be able to save them.” Noah turned away from her and started talking into the phone, presumably to his brother, without even a hi.

Addie stared hard at her salad preparations, willing her heart to steady, willing herself to believe Noah’s words. What would poisoned horses have to do with her?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She had to believe that, but everything that had felt like settling in and comfort and routine earlier now curdled in her gut.

Don’t ever get too used to this place. It’s not yours, and it never will be.

She’d do well to remember it.

October

NOAH FROWNED AT the fence. Someone had hacked it to pieces, and now half his herd was wandering the damn mountains as a winter storm threatened in the west.

He immediately thought of last month and the surprise poison a few of his horses had ingested. The vet had saved the horses, but Noah and Ty had never found the culprits. Noah liked to blame Laurel and her precious sheriff’s department for the crime still being unsolved, even though it wasn’t fair.

Whoever had poisoned the horses had done a well enough job being sneaky, but not in creating much damage. For all he knew it was some kids playing a dumb prank, or even an accident.

This right here was no accident. It was strange. Maybe it could be chalked up to a teenage prank, but something about all this felt wrong, like an itch he couldn’t reach.

But he had to fix the fence and get the cows before he could worry about wrong gut feelings. Noah mounted his horse and headed for the cabin. He’d have to start carrying his cell to call for help if these little problems kept cropping up.

What would Addie be up to? She’d been his housekeeper for two months now, and he had to admit in the quiet of his own mind, he’d gotten used to her presence. So used to it, he relied on it. She kept the cabin neat and clean, her cooking was better and better, and she and the boy... Well, he didn’t mind them underfoot as much as he’d thought he was going to.

Maybe, just maybe, he’d been a little lonely in that house by himself earlier in the summer, and maybe, just maybe, he appreciated some company. Because Addie didn’t intrude on his silence or poke at him for more. The boy was loud, and getting increasingly mobile, which sometimes meant he was crawling all over Noah if he tried to sit down, but that wasn’t the kind of intrusion that bothered him. He found he rather enjoyed the child’s drooly smiles and screeches of delight.

“What has happened to you?” he muttered to himself. He looked at the gray sky. A winter storm had been threatening for days, but it hadn’t let down its wrath yet. Noah had no doubt it would choose the most inopportune time possible. As in, right now with his cows scattered this way and that.

He urged his horse to go a little faster. He’d need Grady and Ty, or Vanessa and Ty if Grady couldn’t get away from the bar. Maybe even Clint could come over after school, assuming he’d gone today. This was an all-hands-on-deck situation.

But as he approached the cabin, he frowned at a set of footprints in the faint dusting of snow that had fallen this morning. The footprints didn’t go from where visitors usually parked to the door, but instead followed the fence line before clearly hopping the fence, then went up to the front window.

A hot bolt of rage went through Noah. Someone had been at that window watching Addie. He jumped from the horse and rushed into the house. Only when he flung open the door and stormed inside did he realize how stupid he looked.

Addie jumped a foot at her seat on the couch, where she was folding clothes. “What’s wrong? What happened?” she asked, clutching one of his shirts to her chest. It was an odd thing to see, her delicate hands holding the fabric of something he wore on his body.

He shook that thought away and focused on thinking clearly. On being calm. He didn’t want to scare her. “Somebody broke the fence and the cows got out.”

Addie stared at him, blue eyes wide, the color draining from her dainty face as it had the day of the poisoning. He’d assured her that had nothing to do with her, and he believed it. He believed this had nothing to do with her, too, but those footsteps and her reaction to anything wrong or sudden...

He wondered about that. She never spoke of Seth’s father or what she might be fleeing, and her actions always seemed to back up Laurel’s theory about being on the run from an abusive husband. Especially as she now glanced worriedly at Seth’s baby monitor, as if she could see him napping in his room through it.

Noah shook his head. He was being paranoid. Letting her fear outweigh his rational mind. He might have a bit of a soft spot for Addie and her boy, which he’d admit to no one ever, but he couldn’t let her fears become his own.

She was his employee. If he sometimes caught himself watching her work in his kitchen... A housekeeper was all he needed. Less complicated than some of the other things his mind drifted to when he wasn’t careful.

Luckily, Noah was exceedingly careful.

“Going to call in some backup to help me round them up.”

“Shouldn’t you call Laurel?” She paused when he scowled, but then continued. “Or anyone at the sheriff’s department?”

She had a point, but he didn’t want to draw attention to repeated issues at his ranch. Didn’t want to draw the town’s attention to Addie and that something might be going on, if it did in fact connect to her.

Maybe the smarter thing to do would be keep it all under wraps and then be more diligent, more watchful, and find whoever was pulling these little pranks himself. Mete out some Carson justice.

Yeah, he liked that idea a lot better.

“I’ll handle it. Don’t worry.”

“Does this have to do with the poisoning? Do you think—”

Noah sent her a silencing look, trying not to feel guilty when she shrank back into the couch. “I’ll handle it. Don’t worry,” he repeated.

She muttered something that sounded surprisingly sarcastic though he didn’t catch the words, but she went back to folding the laundry and Noah crossed to the phone.

He called Ty first, then let Ty handle rounding up whatever Carsons could be of help. He didn’t tell Ty about the footsteps, but a bit later when Ty, Grady and Clint showed up and Noah left the cabin with them, he held Grady back while Ty and Clint went to saddle their horses.

“What’s up?” Grady asked. “You think this is connected to the poison?”

“I think I can’t rule it out. I don’t have a clue who’s doing it, but part of me thinks it’s some dumb kid trying to poke at a Carson to see what he’ll do.”

Grady laughed. “He’d have to be pretty dumb.”

“Yeah. I don’t want Addie to know, but...” He sighed. He needed someone besides him to know. Someone besides him on the watch, and Grady ran the one bar in town. He saw and heard things few other people in Bent did. “There were footprints at the window, as if someone had been watching her.”

Grady’s jaw tightened. “You think it’s the ex?”

“I don’t know what it is, but we need to keep an eye out.”

Grady nodded. “I’ll tell Laurel.”

“No. She’ll tell Addie. She’s just calmed down from the poisoning—now this. I don’t want to rile her more.”

“Laurel will only do what’s best. You know that.”

Noah puffed out a breath. “Addie’s settled from that skittish thing she was before. Hate to see her go back.”

“She’s not a horse, Noah.” Grady grinned. “But maybe you know that all too well.”

Noah scowled. “I want to know who poisoned my horses. I want to know who ran off my cattle, and I damn well want to know who’s peeping in my window.”

Grady nodded. “We’ll get to the bottom of it. No one touches what’s ours. Cow, mine or woman.” Grady grinned at the old family joke.

Noah didn’t. “No woman issues here,” he grumbled. But Grady was right in one respect. No one messed with the Carsons of Bent, Wyoming, and walked away happy or satisfied about it. For over a century, the Carsons had been pitted on the wrong side of the law. The outlaws of Bent. The rich, law-abiding Delaneys had made sure that legend perpetuated, no matter what good came out of the Carson clan.

It was a good thing bad reputations could serve a purpose now and again. He’d do anything to protect what was his.

Addie wasn’t his, though. No matter how he sometimes imagined she was.

He shook those thoughts away. “Will you stay here and watch out?”

“You could,” Grady suggested.

“Addie’d think that’s weird. I don’t want her suspicious.”

“That’s an awful lot of concern for a Delaney, cousin,” Grady said with one of his broad grins that were meant to irritate. Grady had perfected that kind of smile.

Noah knew arguing with Grady about the cause of his concern would only egg Grady on, so Noah grunted and headed for the stables.

Addie Foster was not his to protect personally. Grady’d do just as good a job, and Noah had cows to find and bring back home.

When that weird edge of guilt plagued him the rest of the night, as if his mission was to protect Addie and asking for help was some kind of failure, Noah had the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing what the hell to do about it.

When Noah didn’t know how to fix a problem, he did the next best thing. He ignored it.

Chapter Three

November

Addie hummed along with the song playing over the speaker at the general store. Seth happily slammed his sippy cup against the sides of the cart as she unloaded the groceries onto the checkout counter.

“I swear he grows every week,” Jen Delaney said with a smile as she began to ring up Addie’s items.

“It’s crazy. He’s already in eighteen-month clothes.” Addie bagged the groceries as Jen handed them to her.

It was true. Seth was growing like a weed, thriving in this life she’d built for them. Addie smiled to herself. After the horse poison and the fence debacle, things had settled down. She’d been here three months now. She had a routine down, knew many of the people in town and mostly had stopped looking over her shoulder at every stray noise. Sometimes nights were still hard, but for the most part, life was good. Really good.

Noah had assured her time and time again those two incidents were feud-related, nothing to do with her, and she was finally starting to believe him. She trusted Noah. Implicitly. With her safety, with Seth. Laurel had been right on that first car ride. Noah wasn’t always easy to read or the warmest human being, but he was a good man.

Which had created something of a Noah situation. Well, more a weirdness than a situation. And a weirdness she was quite sure only she felt, because she doubted Noah felt much of anything for her. On the off chance he did, it was so buried she’d likely not live long enough to see it.

“Addie?”

Addie glanced up at Jen. The young woman must have finished ringing everything up while Addie was lost in Noah thoughts. Something that happened far too often as of late.

Addie paid for the groceries, smiling at Jen while she inwardly chastised herself.

Noah Carson was her boss. No matter that she liked the way he looked or that she got fluttery over his gentle way with the horses and cows. And Seth.

She sighed inwardly. He was so sweet with Seth. Never got frustrated with the boy’s increasing mobility or fascination with Noah’s hat or beard.

But no matter that Noah was sweet with Seth, or so kind with her, he was off-limits for her ever-growing fantasies of good, handsome men and happily-ever-afters.

She glanced down at the happy boy kicking in the cart. Sometimes Seth gave her that smile with big blue eyes and she missed her sister so much it hurt. But it always steadied her, renewed any resolve that needed renewing.

She would do anything to keep him safe.

She pushed the cart out of the general store to where her truck was parallel parked, but before she reached it, a man blocked her way.

She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to move or say something, but he just stood there. Staring at her.

She didn’t recognize him. Everything about him was nondescript and plain, and still he didn’t move or speak.

“Excuse me,” she finally said, pulling Seth out of the cart and balancing him on her hip. “This is my truck.”

The man moved only enough to glance at the truck. Also a new skill for her, driving a truck, but Noah had fixed up one of the old ones he used on the ranch for her to use when she had errands.

The strange man turned his gaze back to her and still said nothing. He still didn’t move.

Addie’s heart started beating too hard in her chest, fear seizing her limbs. This wasn’t normal. This wasn’t...

She turned quickly, her hand going over Seth’s head with the idea of protecting him somehow. This man was here to get her. Peter had finally caught up with them. She had to run.

She could go back in the store and...and...

“Oof.” Instead of her intended dash to the store, she slammed into a hard wall of man.

“Addie.”

She looked up at Noah, whose hand curled around her arm. He looked down at her, something like concern or confusion hidden underneath all that hair and stoicism.

“Everything okay?” he asked in that gruff voice that suggested no actual interest in the answer, but that was the thing about Noah. He gave the impression he didn’t care about anything beyond his horses and cows, but he’d fixed up that truck for her even though she hadn’t asked. He played with Seth as if people who hired housekeepers usually had relationships with the housekeeper’s kid. He made sure there was food for Ty, room for Vanessa and Clint, and work if any of them wanted it.

He was a man who cared about a lot of people and hid it well.

“I just...” She looked back at where the strange, unspeaking man had been. There was no one there. No one. She didn’t know how to explain it to Noah. She didn’t know how to explain it to anyone.

The man hadn’t said anything threatening. Hadn’t done anything threatening, but that hadn’t been normal. “I thought I saw someone...” She looked around again, but there was no sign of anyone in the sunshine-laden morning.

“As in someone someone?” Noah asked in that same stoic voice, and yet Addie had no doubt if she gave any hint of fear, Noah would jump into action.

So she forced herself to smile. “I’m being silly. It was just a man.” She shook her head and gestured with her free hand. “I’m sure it was nothing.” Which was a flat-out lie. As much as she’d love to tell herself it was nothing, she knew Peter too well to think this wasn’t something.

She blew out a breath, scanning the road again. There was just no other explanation. He knew where she was. He knew.

“Addie.”

She looked back at Noah, realizing his hand was still on her arm. Big and rough. Strong. Working for Noah had made her feel safe. Protected.

But this wasn’t his fight, and she’d brought it to his door.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

“For what?” he asked in that gruff, irritable way.

Seth lunged for Noah, happily babbling his favorite word over and over again. “No, no, no.” Addie tried to hold on to the wiggling child, but Noah took him out of her arms with ease.

“Aren’t you supposed to be back at the ranch? You know I get groceries on Wednesdays. I could have picked up whatever for you.”

“It’s feed,” Noah said. “Couldn’t have loaded it up yourself with the baby.” He glanced at the grocery cart behind her. “We’ll put the groceries in my truck.”

“Oh, I can handle...”

“He always falls asleep on the way home, doesn’t he?” Noah asked as if it wasn’t something that he knew Seth’s routine. Or that he was letting Seth pull the cowboy hat off his head, and then smash it back on.

Noah moved for the cart, because you didn’t argue with Noah. He made a decision and you followed it whether you wanted to or not. Partly because he was her boss, but she also thought it was partly just him.

“Let’s get home and you can tell me what really happened.” Noah’s dark gaze scanned the street as if he could figure everything out simply by looking around.

She knew it was foolish, but she was a little afraid he could. “I swear, nothing happened. I’m being silly.”

“Well, you can tell me about that, too. At home.” He handed her Seth and then took the cart.

Home. She’d wanted to build a home. For Seth. For herself. But if Peter had found her...

She couldn’t let herself get worked up. For Seth’s sake, she had to think clearly. She had to formulate a plan. And she couldn’t possibly let Noah know the truth.

Noah didn’t think running away was the answer, that she knew after listening to his lectures to Clint.

Beyond that, regardless of his personal feelings for her—whether they existed deep down or not—he had a very clear personal code. That personal code would never let a woman and a baby run away without protection.

Which would put him in danger. Very much because of her personal feelings, she couldn’t let that happen.

“Okay. I’ll meet you back at the ranch.” She smiled pleasantly and even let him take the cart of groceries and wheel it down to where his truck was parked on the corner. She frowned at that. “If you were in town to pick up feed, why are you here?”

Noah didn’t glance at her, but he did shrug. “Saw the truck. Thought you might need some help loading.” Then he was hidden behind his truck door, loading the groceries into the back seat.

Addie glanced down at Seth. “I really don’t know what to do with that man,” she murmured, opening her own truck door and getting Seth situated in his car seat. She supposed in the end it didn’t matter she didn’t know what to do with him. If someone was here...

Well, Seth was her priority. She couldn’t be a sitting duck, and she couldn’t bring Noah into harm’s way. This wasn’t like the poison or the fence. This was directed at her. That man had stared at her. Whether or not those first two things were related didn’t matter, because this was about her.

Which meant it was time to leave again. She slid into the driver’s seat, glancing in her rearview mirror, where she watched Noah start walking back toward the store to return the now-empty cart.

Addie had become adept at lying in the past year. She’d had to, but mainly she only had to lie to strangers or people she didn’t know very well. Even that initial lie to Laurel, and the past three months of upholding it with everyone, hadn’t been hard. Pretending to be Seth’s biological mother was as easy as pie since he was hers and hers alone these days.

But finding a new lie, and telling it to Noah’s face—that was going to be a challenge. She changed her gaze from Noah’s reflection to Seth in the car seat. She smiled at him in the mirror.

“It’s okay, baby. I’ll take care of it.” Somehow. Someway.

* * *

NOAH HAD UNLOADED the groceries at the front door, and Addie had taken them inside, the baby monitor sitting on the kitchen table as they quietly worked.

He should have insisted they talk about what had transpired at the general store, but instead he’d gone back out to his truck and driven over to the barn to unload the feed.